A team of researchers led by Mark Sobsey, PhD, has received the International Water Association’s 2008 Project Innovation Award for their research endeavor, “Ceramic Water Filters in Cambodia: A Sustainable Solution for Rural Drinking Water Treatment.” The project is one of the Gillings Innovation Laboratories at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Public Health.

Sobsey, Kenan Distinguished University Professor of environmental sciences and engineering in the UNC School of Public Health, accepted the honor at the Association’s East Asian and Pacific Awards Ceremony on June 26 in Singapore.

Joe Brown, PhD, a recent graduate of the UNC doctoral program in environmental sciences and engineering and current faculty member at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, proposed the original water purification project and worked with Sobsey and others to initiate and field-test it in Cambodian homes.

After successful testing, Sobsey, Brown and others established the Carolina Global Water Partnership, a research collaboration between UNC’s School of Public Health and its Kenan-Flagler Business School, which is exploring ways to commercialize household water treatment technologies in developing countries.

The Global Water Partnership is one of seven Gillings Innovation Laboratories (GILs) established thus far at the UNC School of Public Health. GILs are interdisciplinary research groups funded through a major gift to the School from Dennis and Joan Gillings.

“We know that biosand and ceramic filters and other household water treatment technologies make an enormous difference in the health of people who don’t have access to clean drinking water,” Sobsey has said.  

The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 2 million children die each year from diarrhea and related illnesses caused by unsafe drinking water and inadequate hygiene and sanitation.

“We have the technologies, but now it’s a matter of finding ways to get these technologies into communities and households, and have people adopt and use them effectively and sustainably,” Sobsey said.

Sobsey said this afternoon that he was honored to accept the award on behalf of Joe Brown and himself. “I am pleased that this brings more visibility to our Department and School, especially because the project focuses on global water and on those most in need of safe water,” he said. 

IWA representatives and others had special praise for the project, Sobsey said, because of its target beneficiaries, the simplicity and effectiveness of the technology, its low cost and the fact that it was a student's project.

“We were pleased to receive recognition for this project,” Brown said.  “Our research has shown that locally produced ceramic water filters can be an effective long-term solution to contaminated drinking water at the household level.”

In his application for the award, Brown had noted, “Locally produced ceramic water filters are a new technology in Cambodia.  This project provides the first systematic, field-based assessment of the technology’s sustainability as a drinking water treatment intervention.”

Brown says the filters are now used by an estimated 100,000 Cambodian households for treatment of drinking water, resulting in a 98% reduction of E. coli and a 46% decrease in diarrhea.

Competing for the IWA innovation awards were a number of large international corporations with significantly more complex projects.

Tom Outlaw, a student in the master of business administration program at Kenan-Flagler Business School and involved with Carolina Global Water Partnership, thinks the research demonstrates that high impact doesn’t require high technology or high cost.

“The ceramic water purifier represents technology that is appropriate, affordable and attractive – the three essential drivers of consumer demand,” Outlaw said. “Now, the next step for UNC is scaling-up access to these filters in Cambodia and beyond.”

Dr. Michael Aitken, professor and chair of the School of Public Health’s Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, said he was thrilled that the innovative work being done by Sobsey and his students was being recognized.

“We are particularly proud,” Aitken said, “that our former PhD student, Joe Brown, led this project and has gone on to continue his work as a faculty member at the University of Alabama. Receiving this international award reflects the high quality of research on drinking water for which UNC is known, a reputation that Professor Sobsey has helped to establish.”

“We are very proud of Drs. Sobsey and Brown,” agreed Dr. Barbara K. Rimer, dean of the UNC School of Public Health and Alumni Distinguished Professor of health policy and administration.

“I am especially pleased,” Rimer said, “that the award recognizes the team’s use of low-cost, sustainable technologies to address the water problem. Their deceptively simple innovation could have a profound impact on public health.”

The International Water Association is a global network of water professionals in science, research, technology and practice. Its members, including 10,000 individuals and 400 corporations in 130 countries, work to develop effective and sustainable approaches to water management.

The Association’s Project Innovations Award Program was established to recognize excellence and innovation in water engineering projects. Among the criteria for the award are the degree of complexity of the problem being addressed, the innovative application of technology, the future value to the water engineering profession and the sustainable design of the project.

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Note: Read more about the development of the water filter project in the School of Public Health online news:

• The original project in Cambodia
• Gillings funding for the Carolina Global Water Partnership
• Entrepreneurial team, Carolina Liquid Assets, wins prize for work on the water project
  

The IWA awards were presented as part of Singapore International Water Week.

Dr. Joe Brown can be reached at joebrown@bama.ua.edu.

School of Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.